“Then on October 17 of that same year, the Lord sent another message through the prophet Haggai. “Say this to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of God’s people there in the land: ‘Does anyone remember this house—this Temple—in its former splendor? How, in comparison, does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all! But now the Lord says: Be strong, Zerubbabel. Be strong, Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people still left in the land. And now get to work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
Haggai 2:1-4 NLT
Is the past a help or a hindrance? As finite creatures, we occupy the space and time of the moment we are in, but God gives us the blessing of memory to be able to orient ourselves as we navigate the now. Unfortunately, this can be a point of difficulty for many and a point of exploitation for the future enemies of God. Repeatedly we are told to remember God’s providence in difficult times. In fact most of the Jewish celebrations and feasts center around this practice. Yet, the challenge is to remember for the sake of the now. We are to carry God’s character with us, moment to moment. For those who forget that last part, the past easily becomes a place they become stuck in. Unhinged from the now, they begin to idolize it and even long for dark days. But humans live in the now, and the point of the tool of remembrance is to that end. Our challenge is to learn from the past about who God is and bring that knowledge into the now so that we can be stable even when we are only finite creatures. We must not linger in the past or it will destroy the present and our futures.
JOSH McGARY. COM 